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This little farm is fun, but adventure takes on a new meaning when your pom pom chick starts exploring on his/her own, compliments of a magnet wand underneath the base!

We read Good Morning, Chick by Mirra Ginsberg, illustrated by Byron Barton (Greenwillow Books, 1989). A newly hatched chick explores a barnyard and learns about animals, sounds, and…getting wet! The plot is very simple, but this book reads in a lovely, fun, and engaging way – especially if you invite kids to make sounds and imitate movements along with you.

For this project, it’s important to make the chick first. You will need the chick to measure the various openings you create in your barn, tree, fences, and tunnel. It would be tragic to get everything glued down and then realize your chick won’t fit!

I prepped the chicks in advance, using white glue to attach 2 wiggle eyes and the orange construction paper beak to a yellow pom-pom. Then I hot glued the chick to the button magnet.

Now for the farm! We’ll start with the biggest object first – the barn. Here are the steps I used to create it. Your barn might vary slightly, depending on the size and shape of your box. The box I used had a lid at the top, and four tabs on the bottom that interlocked to create the bottom of the box.

I cut the lid off the box entirely, and then flipped the box over so the interlocking tabs were facing upwards (the above image on the right).

One important thing to note – the bottom of your barn needs to be open. Meaning, the “floor” of the barn is actually the corrugated cardboard base. This is so the chick magnet can slide in and out of the barn.

To make the roof of the barn, I cut two of the interlocking tabs into triangles to form the “front” and “back” of the roof. Then I folded the other two tabs together to form the peak of the roof. Trim and tape securely.

Next, I cut out the barn doors. Make sure you measure to make sure the chick fits through the doors!

Cover the barn with red construction paper, and add a brown poster board roof. Use markers to add some details.

The tree is next! Cut four tabs in one end of a toilet paper tube like so:

Then cut a entryway at the base of the tube for your chick. Make sure to measure!

To create foliage for your tree, ball up some green tissue paper and glue it to the tube tabs. Use markers to add a hole and some “bark” on the tree.

To create the pond, draw some fish and frogs on the corrugated cardboard base. Then tape a piece of blue cellophane over your drawing. Try to make the cellophane as flat as possible, so your chick magnet can glide over the pond and take a “swim.”

To make a sunflower garden, color and tape the flowers from the template onto the pieces of green pipe cleaner. Then bend the bottom of the pipe cleaner into an “L” shape and tape it to the corrugated cardboard base.

The fences on the template can go just about anywhere, but if you want to create a corner fence like mine, follow these steps. Cut the fences from the template, making sure to leave some space below the fence for your tab. Then, fold along the dotted line of the fence.

Now you have a tab that attaches the fence to the corrugated cardboard base.

Cut a slit in the middle of the tab…

Then fold inward and tape the corner securely.

Your corner fence is complete! And don’t forget…if you want your chick to get through the fence, make sure to cut a hole for him/her (and measure, measure, measure!).

For the tunnel, tab the bottom of each side of the brown poster board, and then fold and shape it into a tunnel. And…let’s say it all together now…don’t forget to measure your chick!

When all the pieces are complete, hot glue them to the corrugated cardboard base (the tunnel, however, does better if it’s taped). We used green tissue paper (crumbled and glued) and fringed green construction paper (secured with tape) for landscaping. We also added some details with markers (including worms for the chick to eat).

The final step, of course, is the magnet wand. This is simply a button magnet hot glued to the top of the wooden spool. HOWEVER…before you hot glue it, test it out on the chick magnet. Make SURE that the two magnets attract (rather than repel).

Once you’ve confirmed that the magnets attract, glue the magnet onto the spool.

To set the farm in motion, place the chick on top of the corrugated cardboard base. Place the magnet wand underneath the base and slide it over to the chick. The two magnets will connect through the base, and your chick can explore the farm!

Inspire a love of fruits and vegetables with this peppy little produce stand!

We read Market Day, written by Carol Foskett Cordsen and illustrated by Douglas B. Jones (Dutton Juvenile, 2008). When the Benson family oversleeps, they’re in such a rush to get their produce to market, they forget to feed the cow! The hungry cow solves the problem by following them to market, wreaking unintentional havoc along the way.

First, pattern the box with colored masking tape (or markers). Decorate the poster board “roof” with markers and fold lengthwise. Tape a piece of pattered paper around the tea tin. Snip a toilet paper tube into two pieces (one piece was 2.5,” the other was 1.5″). Cut the top part of the paper cup off, creating a “basket” out of the bottom, with 1.5″ sides.

Then bring everything to hot glue central.

Whip out your corrugated cardboard base and glue the box in the center, the tea tin on one side, the toilet paper tube pieces on the other side, and the paper cup in front of the tea tin.

Then, hot glue the bottom of 2 craft sticks on either side of the box (sorry about the blah image, I thought it would be easier to demonstrate it this way).

Blob hot glue on the tops of the craft sticks, then gently press the roof on.

Finish by hot gluing two clothespins on the front of the box to hold your “posters.”

Whew! That’s quite a lot of hot gluing (especially since there were 24 kids at my story time that day)! To keep them busy, I handed out the produce stand template for coloring and cutting.

Next up, the hooks for the hanging baskets! Cut the red pipe cleaner into fourths. Then, fashion each piece into a hook like this:

Then tape the top of each hook to the underside of the roof.

Use the hole punch to punch out the black dots on each hanging item on the template (namely, two baskets, a bunch of bananas, and a bunch of peppers). Hang each item on a hook.

Now it’s time for other creative decorating details, such as:

Taping the template “trays” to the box “counter.”

Clipping the template “posters” to the clothespins on the front of the stand.

Taping the template flowers to green pipe cleaner pieces and tucking them in the toilet paper tube “vases” (you can put tissue paper in the vases too).

I had some 3.5″ organza bags left over from another program, so I taped an extra hook to a craft stick roof support and hung 2 bags from it. Some kids started “shopping” for produce with the bags right away. Pretty cute!

Now for the FINAL challenge – the cash register! It’s a little tricky to fold, so some kids might need help. To begin, face the cash register towards you like this:

Then fold the “tab” downward.

Then fold the parts above and below the “base” downward.

Flip the register over, and tape the “tab” panel to the back of the sales panel (the sales panel is the one with “$3.00″ written on it).

Done!

Tape the register to the top of the tea tin and your produce stand is complete!